Ira Gerstein

Ira Gerstein of Milton passed away January 22 peacefully at home because of pneumonia and complications of Parkinson’s Disease. He battled Parkinson’s Disease for over 16 years as he became increasingly disabled, and was an active member of Boston’s Parkinson’s community. A 30-year resident of Milton, he was 82 years old. Ira graduated from MIT in 1959 and received two doctorates, one Ph.D. in Physics from MIT and another Ph.D. in Sociology from Brandeis in 1972. He taught Physics at MIT and the University of Pennsylvania, and Sociology at Boston State College, U. Mass. Boston, Bristol Community College, and for many years at Wheaton College. He also taught political economy at Cambridge Goddard Graduate School, where he met his wife in 1971-72 and married in 1980. He later pursued graduate studies in computer science at U. Mass. Boston and worked as a software engineer from 1990-2010 at Interleaf (later BroadVision), and at Intuit, from which he retired in 2010. Ira was a polymath with many interests, and loved learning, teaching, basketball, tennis, jazz, and hiking. He spent 35 consecutive summers vacationing and hiking in Acadia National Park in Maine. He enjoyed co-coaching his daughter’s middle school basketball team and cheering at her high school basketball and volleyball games. He was thrilled to be able to attend his daughter’s graduation in May, 2019, at which she received her doctorate in health policy from Harvard University. He was previously married to Ellen Kaplan and Louisa Solano.
Ira was born in New York City to the late Mildred Singer Gerstein and Maxwell Gerstein. He grew up in Queens, NY, but remained in the Boston area after college for the rest of his life, except for a few years in Philadelphia. He is survived by his wife of 39 years, Laurie Sheridan; a sister, Marsha Gerstein, of Somerville; a brother, Richard Gerstein, of Bonita Springs, FL; a daughter, Bethany Sheridan Gerstein, of Cambridge; two stepsons, Jeremy Ware (Viola Kosseda) of Brooklyn and Peter Duhme (Heather Koball) of Metuchen, NJ; and four grandsons, Eli, Joe, Paul and Johan, and his cousin, Sarah Mausner, of Auburndale. He also leaves behind many beloved neighbors and friends, and several wonderful home health aides who assisted during his last few years. A memorial service in his honor will be held at a later date in the spring.